Restoration under way of historic boathouse

The historic boathouse at Lindo Lake Park in Lakeside is undergoing restoration, which led to the structure being designated a California Points of Historical Interest.
The restoration is expected to be complete in April.
— John Gibbins / Union-Tribune

The historic boathouse at Lindo Lake Park in Lakeside is undergoing restoration, which led to the structure being designated a California Points of Historical Interest.
The restoration is expected to be complete in April.
/ John Gibbins / Union-Tribune

LAKESIDE 
The historic boathouse at the center of Lakeside's Lindo Lake Park has moved at least twice over the years. The color of its paint has changed, and it lost its ornamentation.

Now, the 1880s structure is going back to its roots. A major restoration is under way, funded by a $150,000 state grant and $50,000 in county funds and aimed at bringing one of Lakeside's oldest buildings back to its original appearance.

The work helped the boathouse recently earn a place on the list of California Points of Historical Interest, a compilation of buildings, sites and events of local significance and anthropological, cultural, political or other value around the state.

“We are just real thrilled,” Lakeside Historical Society Co-President Dixie Lansdowne said of the designation, which was approved by the state's Historical Resources Commission in January. “It's always been like a symbol of our historical past.”

Built in 1887 with the former Lakeside Inn, the boathouse is one of the oldest in the county, and the only one built in a particular Romanesque Revival style, said county historian Lynne Newell Christenson. The boathouse at one time sat on the water, enabling people to launch rowboats from it to use on the lake.

By the 1960s, the boathouse had been moved to land for now unknown reasons, Christenson said. It moved yet again to an island in the lake. Today, it still sits on the island, connected to the park by a bridge. It's used for weddings and other events and, residents say, it's also a hangout for the lake's considerable population of ducks, geese and other winged creatures.

Lakeside resident Jerry Sullivan, 72, was enjoying the park on a recent weekday when he said he would welcome any effort to save historical structures. But Sullivan said he and his wife hoped something could be done to prevent birds from getting inside the boathouse and leaving droppings.

Charley Marchesano, chief of development for the county Department of Parks and Recreation, said his department is aware of the geese, ducks and other birds and has decided to place clumps of boulders around the island's perimeter to try to prevent the geese from getting onto the island. Landscaping may be used as well, Marchesano said, acknowledging that the solutions probably won't be 100 percent effective and that it would probably take staff members “to keep the geese out of there.”

“Nothing would be foolproof,” Marchesano said. “We don't want to keep people out, and the more people are there, the less geese will be there.”

The restoration is expected to be done by the end of April and includes replacing the roof, wood siding and a bridge that connects to the boathouse's island. Other work involves repainting the structure and adding an ornamental wrought-iron rod on top of the roof. Marchesano said the original colors are difficult to determine because early photos are in black and white, but the county plans to paint the boathouse's siding green with cream-colored trim and posts.

The project came together after the county hired consultants to complete a historic-structures report on the boathouse. Christenson said the county regularly does such reports.